Aussie print giant acquires Sydney reseller to get into cloud

One of the country's large print services providers, Viatek, has announced a move into cloud services through the acquisition of the CN Group.

The acquisition merges Viatek's print service business in 20 offices in NSW and Victoria, with The CN Group's managed IT business, which includes expertise in SAP, NetSuite, Microsoft Office 365 and numerous other technologies and services across small to medium business and large enterprise.

The move is part of a strategy to build a "sustainable, long term cloud-based business", according to a press release.

Despite the difference in the two businesses, CN Group CEO Brian Pereira said there are important synergies between the two.

"If you look at cloud computing as an example, Cloud computing is sold by user by usage. Print manages services by page by the image. So there are lots of commonality and synergies in the model and the approach of how we will actually service our customers. "

The move creates the opportunity for CN to provide IT services to "thousands" of small to medium business Viatek customers, Pereira said. Viatek is one of the largest print managed service providers for Fuji-Xerox in Australia, according to Pereira. The company has 20 offices in NSW and Victoria servicing regional locations including Newcastle, Ballarat, Orange, Wollongong and Canberra. Pereira pointed to Viatek's geographic coverage and strength of their balance sheet as key benefits the acquisition will bring to The CN Group.

Pereira described the combined business as an IT "one-stop shop". "CN has been playing in that large enterprise space. In return, we get access to their very deep understanding of servicing the small to medium enterprise."

As well as specialising in managed services for small to medium enterprise, CN Group also provides consulting and systems implementation in mining, manufacturing and the public sector and is a Telstra Enterprise and Government partner. The acquisition "significantly boosts the company's expansion into the large enterprise and government sector", according to a Viatek press release.

Pereira described the cloud opportunities for CN Group in the cloud services space as "huge and still developing."

Viatek has made two other acquisitions in the last two years.